We provide expert search engine optimization (SEO) services to B2B firms in the GTA, from Toronto through to Burlington, Oakville and Hamilton.

Does SEO Still Matter? Can’t I Just Buy Ads?

Businesses need targeted traffic to get good leads and Pay Per Click (PPC) ad costs have gone way up as running Google Ads has become a mainstream marketing activity for most businesses. For many companies the Cost Per Lead from PPC is prohibitive.

Upfront investments in the great content that leads to ranked pages and traffic can yield traffic and leads for months or sometimes years, depending on how digital your competitors are.

For many entrepreneurs, the only way to build a really profitable online business is to build one in a niche where you know you can rank on the first page of Google.

However, SEO is a lengthy and time-consuming process with a fair bit of complexity.

SEO is Not a Stand-Alone Service Anymore

SEO only produces results when it’s part of a well thought out Content Marketing Strategy. When you approach an agency for SEO services, what you really require is Content Marketing Strategy and Execution.

You used to be able to build a page and apply on-page SEO techniques like putting the right words in the title, URL, meta description and H1 tags, and get ranked.

Today, without backlinks, you won’t rank for any competitive terms. You won’t get backlinks unless your content is so impressive that experts in your industry point people to it as an excellent source of information and expertise.

SEO Best Practices for B2B Lead Generation

One of the critical trends in SEO for B2B Lead Generation in the past few years has been a shift away from topical blogging to the building of expert learning centers containing curated articles.

Many companies blog when they have time, and it’s often on whatever topic they feel like writing on. Their posts are generally 500-1000 words based on research from several years ago that advocated for shorter, snackable content. That tends to produce lots of somewhat random, shorter blog posts. We have found that those type of shorter, random posts have almost no SEO value for our clients.

According to a study by Backlinko, here are the most important ranking factors that correlate with first page Google results:

We discovered that content rated as “topically relevant” (via MarketMuse), significantly outperformed content that didn’t cover a topic in-depth. Therefore, publishing focused content that covers a single topic may help with rankings.

Based on SERP data from SEMRush, we found that longer content tends to rank higher in Google’s search results. The average Google first page result contains 1,890 words.

HTTPS had a reasonably strong correlation with first page Google rankings. This wasn’t surprising as Google has confirmed HTTPS as a ranking signal.

Content with at least one image significantly outperformed content without any images. However, we didn’t find that adding additional images influenced rankings.

Site speed matters. Based on data from Alexa, pages on fast-loading sites rank significantly higher than pages on slow-loading sites.

The Shift From Blogs To Learning Centres

Based on that data and the example of SEO thought leaders like Moz, we have been helping health supplement, professional services and software clients implement Learning Centres to replace their blogs.

Learning Centre Best Practices

Design a homepage for the learning centre that makes the most sought-after topics and articles very prominent, instead of the most recent posts.

Organise the topics carefully, like a library or Wikipedia page would: use parent level topics and subtopics.

Make topic a primary navigation method and make type like whitepaper, e-book, case study, video a secondary filtering option. Most users are searching for information on a topic and, they don’t often care if it comes in an ebook or a white paper.

Have a prominent “Start Here” section

Create here content using your best expertise on a sought-after topic with a title like “The Ultimate Guide to,” The Executive Guide to,” The Beginners Guide to.”

Video is the most desired way for most people to process information, as long as the videos are short, well written and produced and get to the point quickly. Make sure you have videos for your key topics.

Planning Phase

Execution

Link building by reaching out to high authority niche sites (improves Domain Authority).

Local Maps optimization and citation building campaigns so that you rank well in Maps listings

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) to get you more leads from your landing pages.

Monitoring and Optimizing

We use tools like SEMRush and MOZ Pro to monitor your ranking improvements and organic traffic growth.

We work to improve content over time so that it continues to rank well despite competitive improvements.

LOCAL SEO

We are experts at optimizing for local search. We’ll help you set up Google Places for your business and get listed in local/social directories such as CitySearch, Yelp, Local.com and GoldBook. We can run citation campaigns to quickly build you directory listings that help with local SEO. We know the little tips and tricks that help you rank better in your local market.